Manual for Survival in a Strange World

After the three sets of firecrackers were finished, the feast officially entered the main course phase. Servants from the He family scurried about the courtyard, swiftly removing the appetizers from the tables to make space for the upcoming main dishes.

Qin Prefecture, located in the south, typically organizes a banquet into three parts: appetizers, main courses, and post-meal snacks.

The first dish of the main course was soup—milky white fish soup served in porcelain bowls as white as jade. It appeared to be made from crucian carp.

The dining table at the He family banquet followed the standard twelve-seat arrangement, but not all twelve places were filled. Several seats remained vacant. The women seated at the table with Ning Zhe, who had taken the place of ‘He Yulan,’ were mostly married women, some with children, the oldest looking no more than seven or eight years old. Yet, whether they were mothers or toddlers, everyone at the table from He Family Village had a piece of dry, yellow paper covering their faces. The paper had names written on it.

When the first dish was served, Ning Zhe didn’t rush to serve himself but sat quietly in his place, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.

As he entered the room and sat down, everyone else at the table accepted his presence as ‘He Yulan.’ The rules of spirit possession were triggered repeatedly, with the same identity reflecting differently in different people’s eyes. Various silhouettes of stances and postures gradually assembled on Ning Zhe’s body, and the memories belonging to He Yulan surged into his mind.

There were no barriers. Ning Zhe easily absorbed the useful memories:

1. He Yulan was not a special person—just an ordinary farmer’s wife in He Family Village with two sons.

2. As Ning Zhe had suspected, the banquet was indeed a wedding feast. Tomorrow was the day when the master of the He family, He Chang, would marry off his daughter.

He Old Master was marrying off his youngest daughter, He Nianjun, aged 18. According to the traditions of Qin Prefecture, on the day before the groom’s party arrived to fetch the bride, the bride’s family would host a feast. After the bride arrived at the groom’s house, another feast would follow.

3. As Gu Yunqing had previously mentioned, the Serpent God had gone mad 18 years ago.

The Serpent God used to mark good and bad omens on the almanac every day, but after contracting madness, one of its eyes went blind. Since then, the almanac only contained bad omens, and He Family Village grew increasingly fearful.

4. …

Ning Zhe’s mind swiftly organized the useful information from He Yulan’s memories. Soon, the second dish was served.

The second dish of the wedding feast was stir-fried eel slices, with blackened marks on the inner side, dried bloodstains. The preparation was authentic.

Ning Zhe casually picked up a piece of eel and chewed it slowly, already knowing what he had to do next.

“I hope Aunt can hold on until then without going mad…” Ning Zhe murmured quietly.

Time passed second by second, and dish after dish was served on the table.

In Ning Zhe’s impression, whether for weddings, moving houses, or other joyful events, such feasts were always lively. From the guests chatting at the table to the servants busily working in the kitchen, everything radiated a sense of bustling noise, and the festive atmosphere only gradually settled down once the banquet ended.

However, this banquet at He Family’s grand residence was eerily quiet, almost terrifying.

Apart from the popping sounds of firecrackers outside the main gate, Ning Zhe hadn’t heard any other noise since entering the He family residence. The guest room was so silent that all one could hear was the sound of food being chewed. Even the small child sitting on their mother’s lap ate quietly, without crying or fussing.

There were twelve dishes in total, and soon the last dish, spicy steamed pork, was served.

But this time, the servant holding the dish lightly pushed the door to the guest room, but it wouldn’t open.

The servant knocked on the door and called out, “The last dish is here~”

With a creak, the door opened slightly, and He Yulan’s head appeared from inside. “Are there more dishes? The table can’t fit any more.”

“It’s the last one, the master ordered that…” the servant started to say, but before he could finish, Ning Zhe fully opened the door, grabbed the steaming dish of steamed pork, and then kicked the servant in the groin.

The servant let out a painful scream, kneeling to the ground, his body curled up from the excruciating pain. Ning Zhe casually placed the dish on the door threshold and grabbed a half brick, smashing it onto the servant’s skull.

The servant died.

Ning Zhe’s expression was indifferent as he calmly stood up, placed the plate of steamed pork on the table, and not a single person reacted to his brutal killing of the servant. They were all dead.

He had killed everyone in the room.

Locking the door to the guest room, Ning Zhe swiftly picked up the servant’s body and ran past the withered Chinese silk tree in the courtyard.

He had to deal with the body in an inappropriate manner.

From He Yulan’s memory, Ning Zhe knew that she had seen a withered tree in the corner of the courtyard as she entered He family’s grand residence. The servants had dug up the dead tree, planning to replace it with a new one, but they had been too busy preparing for the young lady’s wedding to deal with it.

Ning Zhe dragged the servant’s body straight to the unburied pit and tossed the body into it, then quickly filled the hole with dirt and the dead sapling leaning against the courtyard wall.

In Qin Prefecture, tree and water burials were customary, and Ning Zhe was certain that his actions had undoubtedly violated the taboo of ‘proper burial.’

As for the mourning rites, there was no time for them.

Because He Old Master was about to begin the grand feast for the Serpent God.

After disposing of the servant’s body, Ning Zhe wasted no time and quickly headed towards the main building.

The people of He Family Village worship the Serpent God. At every wedding, funeral, and joyous occasion, the most important ritual is to publicly worship the Serpent God, either to send off the deceased or to ask for blessings for the living. Early this morning, a large group of people had already gathered outside the ancestral hall for the ceremony to bring the Serpent God out.

“Most likely, the He family servants are already blowing trumpets, heading towards the ancestral hall. They will bring out the statue of the Serpent God and bring it to the main hall of the He family mansion for worship and blessings.”

Ning Zhe quickened his pace, “This is my best and final chance.”

Because of the consecutive taboos he had broken, Ning Zhe’s luck had taken a turn for the worse. Even though it wasn’t a long walk, he stumbled badly, falling and bruising his face on the cobblestone path. But Ning Zhe didn’t mind, as it wasn’t him falling—it was He Yulan.

He, Ning Zhe, was about to do something even greater.

“Let me try, can I kill both the Serpent God and the ghost…”

Ning Zhe wiped the blood from his nose and, staggering, picked himself up and continued running towards the main building.

After only a few steps, he tripped and fell again, his chin slamming into the ground, and his jawbone cracked loudly.

This time, it wasn’t because of the rocks but because the koi in the pond had inexplicably jumped out, flopping on the ground and jumping around, right under Ning Zhe’s feet.

In this situation, Ning Zhe could only feel relieved that he was using He Yulan’s identity for the journey, or else he probably wouldn’t have made it this far.

“I hope Aunt’s situation is better than mine…” Ning Zhe thought to himself.

Then, he crashed his head against the rockery by the pond, and blood began to pour from the wound.